Discovery Channel has set a January 1 launch for Lone Target, a rugged adventure contest that pits 10-year Navy SEAL vet Joel Lambert against elite military and law enforcement tracking teams that include the U.S. Army’s Phantom Recon unit, the Straz Graniczna border guard in Poland, South African International Anti-Poaching Foundation, the Philippines Army Scout Rangers, an elite anti-drug force from Panama, and a National Police SWAT unit from South Korea.

Lambert will be dropped into unknown treacherous terrain with a basic survival kit and water, and will use diversionary tactics and attempt to evade capture by each one of those elite forces for 48 hours in a series that will air at 10 PM on Discovery. The show will then air in 224 countries on Discovery Channel under the title Manhunt, starting in February. So there is a lot of national pride on the line for these search teams.

Lambert became a specialist in blending into his environment from his years as a SEAL. I met him at Deadline’s The Contenders event, where I interviewed Peter Berg for Lone Survivor, as stark a depiction of Navy SEAL bravery as I’ve seen as they battle impossible odds when ambushed by Taliban forces on a covert mission. Lambert survived a mission that sounded almost as harrowing, and by comparison this seems like a cakewalk.